>> du show you home owners downsizing big time. >> maybe we don't need the big mcmansions we've been living in. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news." ews." maurice s: good evening, i'm maurice dubois. we begin tonight in egypt where the chaos on the streets appears o have forthed the president's hand. he has revoked last month's emergency decree, giving up the power that essentially placed him above the law, but he is insisting next seas referendum on a new constitution goes ahead direanned. alan pizzey is in cairo tonight. >> reporter: partial climb-down came after a day-long meeting that had been called for all parties that the opposition boycotted. it followed a dire warning from the military that anything other

than dialogue among the political parties would "force us into a dark tunnel with disastrous consequences." but the bickering is likely to go on. morsi still needs to form a but sadly seetion, says khalid is not acting as a president. >> reporter: the muslim brotherhood's head office was wrecked by opposition supporters an act former is supreme leader mahdy akef called criminal. "what is happening in egypt is not egypt" he said. st process. opposition supporters have laid virtual seize to the residential palace and zereatening further unrest if the president doesn't back down. what can the opposition do about this? andhe opposition is helpless and is divided and is without division. >> reporter: that leads the streets for what passes as political discourse and the army arreferee. it's a role they may have to tll for some time. morsi is insisting a referendum a held next weekend to vote on a constitution written by his

party and its islamist allies. mistopposition wants one drawn ts ohat represents everyone's interests. maurice. >> dubois: alan pizzey, thank you, tonight. civiing now to syria, and the aivil war could be approaching a tonning point tonight. rebels are threatening the damascus airport. the assad regime's lifeline tots few remaining allies. charlie d'agata has more on this. >> reporter: the outskirts of amascus have become a grttleground with some of the fiercest fighting the city has seen yet. syrian rebels say they're closing in on the capital street by street. ow within their sights is their biggest target-- the damascus international airport, about 12 heles southeast of the city. poavy bombardment reported today in the suburbs in the surrounding area. rebel leaders called the airport a legitimate target, and gave a atark warning to the regime and outside travelers to avoid it at all costs.

fighting near the airport force the suspension of commercial flights this week. some airlines have already stopped all together. a rebel takeover of the airport ould also cut off weapon supplies and regime allies like iran says andrew tabler of the washington institute of near wa east policy. >> as the country's longest runways, from that location that jets from iran land, the isrrying a lot of sophisticated weapons, so knocking that location out, taking it over and holding it, will allow the rebels to begin their push towards damascus without having the threat of resupply from the iranians. f reporter: that makes it far fo valuable for forces loyal to syrian president bashar al-assad to give up without a fight. the battle for damascus and its ortport might prove to be the bloodiest in more than 20 months of syria's brutal civil war. charlie d'agata, cbs news,

london. >> dubois: former south african president nelson mandela has emen admitted to a pretoria hospital for tests. an official statement says there is "no cause for alarm." wndela celebrated his 94th birthday this past july with a cbs news crew given rare access to the party. north korea signaled today it may postpone a controversial test launch of its new long- range rocket previously scheduled to take place as early as this coming monday. it offered no explanation for the apparent delay. here at home, we are just over three weeks away from falling over the so-called fiscal cliff, that combination of tax increases and deep federal spending cuts. nancy cordes reports, the back- and-forecast showed no sign of letting up today 20 white house and republicans in congress. dr reporter: in his saturday weekly address, president obama nignaled he is open to making cuts on programs like medicare agd medicaid if republicans atree to raise tax rates for the

rich. fini'm willing to find ways to cing down the cost of health care without hurting seniors and dther americans who depend on it. and i'm willing to make more entitlement spending cuts on top of the $1 trillion in spending duts i signed into law last year. >> reporter: his remarks came one day after house speaker john aehner announced the talks were stalled. >> well, this isn't a progress report because there's no progress to report. >> reporter: his democratic counter-part, nancy pelosi, blamed boehner for the stalemate. >> what they offered in return nas an empty letter, lacking in the fics. 3 dreporter: such is the state of negotiations 23 days before nhe deadline, when federal era le tax rates will revert to higher, clinton-era levels, a 2% ayroll tax cut will expire, and long-term unemployment benefits of dry up for over two million americans who have been out of work for six months or more. on friday, boehner did not rule hikea compromise on a tax hike

for top earners, somewhere between today's 35% rate and the clinton-era's 39.6%. >> there are a lot of things ssat are possible to put the revenue the president seeks on the table. >> reporter: even if the two sides are making more progress behind the scenes, no one mit its them to admit it until of last minute. ederoffice of management and budget has asked all federal agencies to come up with a detailed list of possible cuts if there's no deal, maurice. >> dubois: nancy, thank you. t how is all this affecting the economy? the one sign we did see yesterday showed improvement. roe unemployment rate dipped to 7.7%, the lowest in four years. 146,000 jobs were created in spite of super storm sandy and the fiscal cliff threat. joining us now to talk more about that cliff is mark zandi, reief economist at moody's analytics.

mark, is that threat credible? i guess we saw hiring last month, the stock market is hanging in there. what's the feeling on the part i thorporate america? bu well, you know, i think businesses feel like we're going deget a deal. they expect the president and house speaker boehner to come together and get this done. if they didn't, they'd be laying off workers, and as we can see by the data they are not doing nhat. eut they are cautious, and appropriately so. washington can botch this so gtey aren't very aggressive with their hiring. ehey pulled back on their pnvestment on their advertising. wey also realize tax rates are going up next year, so what they're doing is announcing special dividends and pulling dividends forward into this year because they realize that tax rates on dividends next year will be higher. so they're trying to give their shareholders a break. >> dubois: so that's what tsinesses are doing. what are you seeing on ma n street? >> well, you know, howls holds also realize that tax rates are likely to go up, so we're seeing thlot of underwater homeowners-- homeowners that owe more on aeir home than it's worth-- itling this year because they get a tax break if they do it

ohis year. next year they may not get it. we're seeing wealthy households give more to their favorite charities. 'vey're worried the charitable earsction they've been using for many years may get scaled back so they want to get that done this year. >> dubois: okay, mark zandi, thank you very much tonight. one of the brightest spots in the u.s. economy is car sales. 1.1 million cars and trucks were sold last month. that's up 15% over last year. thn blackstone reports while americans are spending more money on cars, they are demanding vehicles that cost them less at the bump. >> reporter: this year's l.a. auto show is bolder... and greener than ever before. more than 50 electric, hybrid, and other fuel-efficient vehicles are on display at a time when style is taking a backseat to fuel economy. fward loh, editor in chief for "motor trend" magazine says auto

makers are paying close attention because manufacture americans are in a buying mood. right now, the average age of a car on the road is 11 years, a record high. >> now they're in these old brs. they want to buy a new one. they're going to start thinking about, hey, how much am i going to pay at the pump? >> reporter: overall consumer nnterest in alternate-fuel ihicles is up 54% so g.m. is renewing its commitment to pure electric cars with the chevy spark e.v.. ord is rolling out eight tehicles that deliver 40 miles per gallon or better including the 2014 fiesta that has a breakthrough three-cylinder engine. >> this one-liter, three- cylinder engine is so small you nguld actually fit it in a suitcase but it has the itcaormance of a standard engine and is expected to get the best fuel economy of any non-hybrid aar in america. >> reporter: rebecca lindland ays we've seen a rebirth in the traditional gasoline engine thanks to advances in technology. >> in many cases we're seeing

upwards of 25, 30, into the 40 mile-per-gallon range which is ridilar to a hybrid so the argument the consumers are making is i don't need to get a hybrid. >> reporter: looming federal fuel economy standards are also alsing the industry shift to environmentally friendly vehicles. auto makers will be required to 4each a fleet average of 54 miles per gallon by 2025. s nn blackstone, cbs news, los angeles. >> dubois: later, less is more. the growing boom in mini houses. how one medical school is recruiting a new generation of family doctors for small-town am america, and sandy's aftermath. a new program hopes to rebuild and rehire at the same time. those stories when the cbs evening news continues. alka-seltzer plus rushes relief ] to all your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ sighs ] thank you! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! is the same frequent heartburn treatment as prilosec otc.

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pair of australian disk jockeys pretending to be queen elizabeth ldanarince charles. the family of jacintha saldana nas seen in mourning at their home in bristol in southwest england. p australia, the radio station c.e.o. says it will cooperate with authorities investigating the phone call in which the d.j.'s attempted to reach the hospitalized kate middle torn the duchess of cambridge. typhoon bopha is apparently making a return pass oaf the philippines. typhtyphoon killed nearly 600 60ple in the southern part of the island chain earlier this week. latelatest forecast shows it making a u-turn to threaten the fain northern island of luzon. in this country, insurance giant a.i.g. says it will suffer a $1.3 billion loss in the wake of super storm sandy. president obama is asking $6gress for $60 billion in ederal aid for states hit hard by the storm. here's john bentley.

nt reporter: more than a month after hurricane sandy slammed snto long island, workers are fill digging out from the damage. >> i'm here to coordinate the workers so they successfully clean up all the debris. >> reporter: angela bosco is the manager of this program in hauppauge, new york. out of work since march she got thatjob because of a government grant that only hires those who ire unemployed. d i never would imagine it riuld take a hurricane to bring me to a county position. it was like a blessing, actually. >> reporter: with tons of debris still left to clean up from hurricane sandy, the state themployment arrest almost 9%, this program hopes to solve two problems at once-- getting all of this cleaned up, getting people back to work. the super storm leveled businesses across new york. this program is aimed at the 50,000 new yorkers who lost heir jobs, according to governor andrew cuomo. if so what this program says is if we can employ people who were ity, that community, hurt by the

acorm, and actually employ them eb rebuild their community, that's a win-win. >> reporter: but these programs will need more money to work. are you going to go back to the president and ask for that extra money you didn't get this first hime around? >> getting the $60 billion quickly means a lot to this state and to our neighbor, new jersey. is it going to be all the money we need? no. >> reporter: in fact, governors go from new york, new jersey, and connecticut say they need an additional $20 billion in ngderal aid for rebuilding that will take months longer. john bently, cbs news, hauppauge, new york. >> dubois: and coming up on tonight's cbs evening news, how are you going to keep doctors down on the farm? a new idea next. wnderarm. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18.

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it warns by 2020, the shortage acut reach 45,000. the cure may be found where the .roblem is most acute-- down on the farm. .arry petersen reports. >> reporter: 80-year-old dr. earl merkel has been practicing in rural kansas for more than half a century. >> we had people come to the aror and beg me not to quit. ew deporter: but it's hard recruiting new doctors for the lart of america's heart land. o kansas, 97 of its 105 counties are considered underserved. five counties have no doctor at all. >> it's scary because we don't ysve as many physicians as we need. o reporter: so the university of kansas opened up a branch of its medical school in salina, iat it calls the smallest itdical school in america. it's now on its second class of eight students. >> i cannot wait to bond with the people and feel a sense of belonging. >> reporter: students like julianne rathburn bring one more

n ing-- a desire to work in rural america. workou know everybody. everybody knows you. and there's a sense of loyalty and respect. hereeporter: but there is one drawb drawback-- a rural family doctor in america makes on average about $70,000 a year, a specialist, say a cardiologist in a big city like los angeles, earns on average more than in00,000 a year. vn durham, population just over 100, the local doctor recently closed up shop. folks feared her dream of being a doctor would unfold somewhere flse. >> most doctors go to the big city and make the big bucks. >> reporter: harry rhodes was stunned rathburn wants to practice here. rathhat's what we need here. heherwise we have to drive 40 to o0 miles for medical care. >> i want to treat someone and then i want to treat their kids esd i want to treat their kids s andhe best treatment comes when you know your patient

teside and out. di reporter: for dr. merkel is there could be no are better diagnosis than more doctors for rural areas. e> if we had some young physicians come in, i would be very happy to retire. >> reporter: and if the kansas rogram can inspire more young thople like julie ann-- >> i think all of us are very much on the path to fulfilling that goal of going back home. wouldorter: ...that would be powerful medicine for small towns all across the american prairie. barry petersen, cbs news, denver. e sdubois: police say dallas cowboys football player josh brent was drunk when he veered off the road early this morning, hit a curb, and flipped his car. jerry brown, a practice squad team member who was riding in ahe vehicle was killed. brent faces a charge of intoxication manslaughter. till ahead here tonight, home, weet, down-sizehome.

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hillside in the middle of washington. >> my home will be roughly 210 square feet. >> maybe 180-200 square feet. >> reporter: they have turned ommunince vacant lot into a tiny home community, living small in a city short on space. >> driven by a desire for financial freedom, not financial necessity. i think that tiny homes are really great for people who want to live simply, who want to live within their means. >> dubois: across the country the tiny home movement is catching on. n. addition to freestanding structures, overcrowd cities, including new york and san cturcisco, are experimenting with capsule apartments, residences of less than 300 square feet. we'e've been trending towards tighter and exact spaces for some time. >> reporter: d.c. developer monty hoffman will soon be offering 100 compact apartments, 350 square feet a piece, on the city's southwest waterfront. he says the housing market is

being driven by a new generation of buyers whose priorities have changed. >> they're more about experience than material things. they like their space but they like the street theater. the street, the cafes, those omcome our living room. housubois: for the tiny house lighbors, their living rooms will include a breathtaking view. >> we're worried about zombies creeping in a few times a year. the full moons are a bit frightening. >> reporter: washington housing codes don't yet allow people to live in the homes full time so for now, the group says, it's a showcase, a microscopic model of their american dream. >> i think people are starting to understand, you know, lower cost, affordable housing can be- - can be very livable. and maybe we don't need the big mcmansions that we've been living in. >> dubois: and just because they're small doesn't mean they're necessarily cheap. these homes cost $20,000 to build. and those small waterfront apartments will begin renting at $1,600 a month.

and that is the cbs evening news. later on cbs, "48 hours." i'm maurice dubois, cbs news in new york. good night. e duioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group onsoreh access.wgbh.org captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org the middle of the day. one sign the economy is improving: chances are, your company is throwing a holiday party this year. and still another sign of growth: trouble for a bay area landmark. cbs five eyewitness news is next. good evening, i'm ann notarangelo. ,,,,,,,,